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Inventing a language from scratch might seem like an odd way to spend your time, but there are good reasons to do it. People create languages for scientific, cultural and artistic purposes: to test theories about how the brain works, to help people communicate, to ‘improve’ existing languages, or because they just need a new [...]

Thanks to their sheltered lives and the adverse effects of inbreeding, a lot of history’s kings, queens, and other royals became known for their eccentricities. There was Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who delighted in torturing her servants and was even rumored to bathe in the blood of virgins; there was Gian Gastone of Italy, who was [...]